The Nervous System by Nathan Larson

PROMISE LAND IMPORTS , a mass of cabbage and what appears to be a scalp, or the top of a human head, as well as a protruding stump. More photos along these lines, which I choose to leave alone.
    The text is minimal, two bodies:
    â€”Unidentified 19–21 year old Asian female remains, dismembered, minus hands/feet/teeth, face burned off/soldered really, perhaps by blowtorch. Partial silicon breast implants (serial numbers removed/unreadable).
    â€”Unidentified child, approximately 2 years old, Asian mix, dismembered and incomplete in the same manner as other body.
    Within ten hours of the discovery of the dead came the arrest of one Kwon Man Seok, a.k.a. K-Man, a twenty-three-year-old midlevel Kkangpae lieutenant in the Korean mob, coowner of Promise Land Imports and the Executive Comfort Lounge, 18 West 33rd Street, a hostess bar, both businesses known funnels for human traffic, narcotics, and prostitution, according to the report.
    The female was presumed to be the “property” of a competitor, no identification necessary. Unknowable turf disputes were cited, and I find no further mention of the child.
    Case frickin closed + enjoy your weekend, boys.
    But hey now. What have we here? K-Man strolls out the joint in May 2006, according to his parole report. Free and clear and nary another mention herein.
    Damn, I know a hooker isn’t worth much to our justice system, but a child? To walk that early, it’s downright stanky.
    His rap sheet. Small-time syndicate stuff. Suspicion of human trafficking, drug possession, reports of illegal organ trade. All dismissed or deferred.
    Rosenblatt also included a page with a single CCTV photograph showing Senator Howard and a man identified as Korean mob boss Danny Ya, who would have been K-Man’s senior officer, in front of the Tribeca restaurant Nobu. The date is two weeks before the discovery of the bodies.
    A day prior, we have a printed transcript of Howard holding a conversation with two men at the Calvisius Caviar Lounge, Four Seasons Hotel, NYC—one Nic Deluccia, “formerly of the NYPD,” I get a za-zing cause I know that name; and an unidentified “active ATF agent”—during which the senator makes such regrettable statements as, “She is asking for too goddamn much now,” and, “[ Garbled ] easiest to make the whole motherfucking thing [ fingersnap ] disappear.”
    Hold up. Nic Deluccia? I get an image, a small room, scarred-up wooden table, white dudes, a can of Tab … cops.
    Nothing more for the moment. It may or may not come, so I move on.
    Deluccia is credited with this zinger: “Just have to know the right people in that community, fucking bucketheads [ garbled ], but these things can be very simply resolved.” To which the senator responds: “It’s a question of perception, how this thing is made to appear.”
    And most distasteful of all, at least to me, is this exchange:
    Sen. Howard: Kids?
    Deluccia: No sir.
    Male 2: My boy is thirteen …
    Sen. Howard: Tough age.
    [Laughter.]
    Male 2: Tell me about it … and my eighteen-year-old, ah, daughter, starting up at Barnard this fall. Big transition.
    Sen. Howard: That it is. Good school. Bit free-thinking, if you catch my meaning. I’d keep an eye on her.
    [Laughter.]
    Sen. Howard: But a fine school. Children, biggest blessing in life.
    [Interruption, passing waiter.]
    Sen. Howard: [Garbled] will forever haunt me, involving the … But I don’t see how …
    Deluccia: Can’t concern yourself with that, sir. [Garbled] as collateral, unavoidable and of course very unfortunate, a very difficult thing.
    Sen. Howard: God forgives. We have only to ask.
    Male 2: As you say, sir.
    No photographs accompany this section, but we have a dated CD in the plastic slip holding the transcript. I assume this to be audio of the conversation. If I want to listen to it, I’d have to find a goddamn CD player , which sounds so